Another FYI for those you desire a high power LED light..
18650 cells are a generic standard. Most commonly used in laptops.
Laptop battery packs are shockingly stupid and will "go bad" when 1 cell in the pack dies. But the rest are perfectly good. My point is you could either a) Snag a trashed pack from work or a computer shop. or b) jump on ebay (after having done a little homework) and buy a older pack for an obsolete computer and open it up and now you have 4-20 perfectly good used cells. My IT guys toss these things on a regular basis. I grabbed one and broke it open. My 2 cell charger told me which the bad battery was (by not charging it) and now I have 11 perfectly good 18650 cells. Cost: Zero.
eBay hosts thousands of laptop battery packs that sell for pennies and ship for a couple $s.
So now I have a handful of $6 "1000 lumen" flashlights for a $7 investment. I break/drop/lose it.. who cares?!
Another thing to beware of is the cheap Chinese "1000 lumen" (pick your rating, the following still applies) lights will never put out their full rating. The circuit board that limits the power is often so cheap that it won't allow anything approaching the full amperage needed. But 600 - 700 actual lumens is still enough to fend off the dark!
18650 cells are a generic standard. Most commonly used in laptops.
Laptop battery packs are shockingly stupid and will "go bad" when 1 cell in the pack dies. But the rest are perfectly good. My point is you could either a) Snag a trashed pack from work or a computer shop. or b) jump on ebay (after having done a little homework) and buy a older pack for an obsolete computer and open it up and now you have 4-20 perfectly good used cells. My IT guys toss these things on a regular basis. I grabbed one and broke it open. My 2 cell charger told me which the bad battery was (by not charging it) and now I have 11 perfectly good 18650 cells. Cost: Zero.
eBay hosts thousands of laptop battery packs that sell for pennies and ship for a couple $s.
So now I have a handful of $6 "1000 lumen" flashlights for a $7 investment. I break/drop/lose it.. who cares?!
Another thing to beware of is the cheap Chinese "1000 lumen" (pick your rating, the following still applies) lights will never put out their full rating. The circuit board that limits the power is often so cheap that it won't allow anything approaching the full amperage needed. But 600 - 700 actual lumens is still enough to fend off the dark!
